For the last 8 months or so, I've been all-in on Irish music. Instead of branching out beyond that repertoire, I've focused exclusively on the Irish tunes played at local sessions in and around Portland, Oregon. Intersecting with that, I've limited this pursuit of Irish tunes to instruments with GDAE tuning: tenor banjo, tenor guitar, and (occasionally) mandolin. Some people will go all-in on Irish, but distribute that study among several differently played instruments within the tradition such as tin whistle, concertina, bouzouki, and fiddle for example. For now, I'm just sticking with one thing.
This is a new approach for me. Never before have I done this. When I was living in Virginia, I was never 100% devoted to Irish music exclusively. For a few years I was dividing my time between Irish sessions and old-time fiddle tune jams, before later abandoning those pursuits altogether to go down wormholes into Jamaican mento or the Crucian Scratch music of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Plus a three year stint where I only played little melodies that I came up with myself. There have even been times when I tried and failed to learn how to play New Orleans style tenor banjo, or took lessons in music theory. None of that now.
As far as instruments go, yes I started on tenor banjo but over the years I have experimented with mallet instruments, starting with glockenspiel, then moving to xylophone, and eventually marimba. I also went through a stint where I taught myself how to play melodies in all fourths tuning on guitar. I think that helped advance my ear training. When I was writing my own melodies, I would sometimes use a cheap Casio keyboard as well. At the time it was beneficial to check out the layout of these other instruments to have that experience of seeing the notes in a totally different way. However, at the moment that's not part of my plan.
The benefit of this laser focus is that now I can more directly address deficiencies...things I am not very good at such as playing up to session speed, ornamentation (making it sound "Irish"), and continuing to advance my ear and understanding of the style so that I become less reliant on having to refer to a written version of the tune.
Lastly, one thing about banjo, especially the four string banjo, is that even if you are just plucking Irish tunes on it you can still feel a connection to the banjo's roots in the Caribbean. There's like an underlying theme or feel bubbling below the surface that links it to these rhythms and syncopation. And for tenor guitar, there are times when you really can almost fancy yourself as a flatpicker. A bluegrass guitar fantasy where, even if you are just playing an Irish reel in an Irish session, you can temporarily tap-into a "what would Tony Rice or Billy Strings do?" kind of vibe. So that makes it fun.
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